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Garfield Basin: Center Park Trail to Tungsten PassGarfield Basin: Center Park Trail to Tungsten Pass

Garfield Basin: Center Park Trail to Tungsten Pass

High Uintas Wilderness | Saturday – Monday, August 1-3, 2026

After spending Friday evening at a concert in Salt Lake City, I was up early on Saturday morning to meet up with Jared so we could head over to the Uinta Mountains and go on a two night backpacking trip into the High Uintas Wilderness. We had tried backpacking along the western end of the Highline Trail last summer from Hayden Pass, but that trip didn’t work out as planned because there was a brand new wildfire that altered our initial plans and then we encountered plenty of deadfall across the trail from an older fire that made the hiking difficult. We were hoping not to repeat that kind of trip again this year. After looking over maps I thought Garfield Basin looked like it would be a relatively easy hike to a large basin that is mostly above treeline and wouldn’t be too busy or impacted by previous wildfires, so that’s where we decided to go. As an added bonus, we would be able to briefly connect up with the Highline Trail near the top of the basin and visit a pass or two while we were up there.

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Telluride Trails: Sneffels Highline Trail & Mystic FallsTelluride Trails: Sneffels Highline Trail & Mystic Falls

Telluride Trails: Sneffels Highline Trail & Mystic Falls

Friday & Saturday, August 15-16, 2025

Since Diane and I are leaving on Tuesday afternoon to spend the rest of the week up in Wyoming, I needed to be home on Sunday to get prepared for the upcoming trip. Still, I wanted to get out hiking in the mountains this weekend and decided to head on down to Telluride after work on Friday so I could hike the Sneffels Highline Trail on Saturday morning. It’s been quite a while since I last hiked in the Mount Sneffels Wilderness and I was looking forward to returning. Although it seems that the monsoon has been pretty nonexistent around here this season, according to the forecast it looked like stormy weather was going to back this weekend and I might have to work around some wet weather- I was just hoping it wouldn’t completely cancel my plans. As I drove down to Telluride on Friday afternoon I started to encounter some rain as I drove through San Miguel Canyon, but it had stopped by the time I reached Telluride and found a place to park in town.

CONTINUE READINGTelluride Trails: Sneffels Highline Trail & Mystic Falls
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Red Castle Lakes via the East Fork of Smiths ForkRed Castle Lakes via the East Fork of Smiths Fork

Red Castle Lakes via the East Fork of Smiths Fork

High Uintas Wilderness | Thursday – Sunday, August 1-4, 2024

After Diane and I backpacked into Henrys Fork and then hiked to the summit of Kings Peak in the Uinta Mountains back in 2018, we had talked about returning to the High Uintas Wilderness every other year for a new backpacking trip. Unfortunately, we did not keep up with that idea and have not returned since that trip, but this year I was determined to finally get back and planned for us to spend a couple nights near the Red Castle in the East Fork of Smiths Fork, which is a location I have wanted to visit for quite a long time. Although I would have preferred to do this trip much later in August, Diane was pretty busy at that time and the only weekend that work for both of us was the first weekend in August, so that’s when we would have to go. We left from home after Diane got out of work on Thursday evening and drove up to the Red Canyon Campground within the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area and arrived shortly after dark. We quickly got our tent set up and were in our sleeping bags by 10:00pm.

CONTINUE READINGRed Castle Lakes via the East Fork of Smiths Fork
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Bridal Veil Basin: Blue Lake and the Lewis MillBridal Veil Basin: Blue Lake and the Lewis Mine

Bridal Veil Basin: Blue Lake and the Lewis Mill

Mountains of Minerals | Friday & Saturday, August 4-5, 2023

Since I spent last weekend at the very southern end of the San Juan Mountains I decided to stay a little closer to home this weekend and hike at the northern end of the range in the headwaters of the San Miguel River. Although I usually try to avoid Telluride, there are still a number of trails surrounding the town that I would like to hike, so I figured that it’s time to start checking some of them out- beginning with a hike into Bridal Veil Basin. After spending most of the day Friday on the Grand Mesa for work, I briefly returned to the office, grabbed a quick dinner on my way out of town and then headed south into the San Juan Mountains.

CONTINUE READINGBridal Veil Basin: Blue Lake and the Lewis Mill
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Woods Lake, Sunshine Mesa & Lizard Head PassWoods Lake, Sunshine Mesa & Lizard Head Pass

Woods Lake, Sunshine Mesa & Lizard Head Pass

Friday, July 7, 2023

Well, this weekend certainly did not go as I would have liked it to. I had planned to spend the entire weekend hiking new trails and summits in the Rico Mountains and Lizard Head Wilderness, like I’ve been doing for the past couple of years, but on Friday evening I started feeling pretty ill and ended up coming home very late that night and staying in for the rest of the weekend. I did make a couple short detours to hike and explore on my way to find a campsite Friday afternoon, so here are a couple of the photos I took along the way.

CONTINUE READINGWoods Lake, Sunshine Mesa & Lizard Head Pass
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